When I started following cats and other pets on Facebook in 2011 after adopting Lola, I had no idea that they, and their families, would come to mean so much to me. I was amazed at how an animal I had never seen in person could find their way into my heart just by reading their story and seeing their photo on the computer. I have laughed at their antics, liked their cute photos, and cried when they made their journeys to the Rainbow Bridge. Real, heart wrenching, sob inducing tears. I have sincerely felt like they took a piece of my heart when they passed. It’s not every animal I see on Facebook that makes me feel that way, but there are some, for reasons I still cannot wrap my entire mind around, that touch me in a profound way. Sal was one of those beautiful little souls.
I used to follow a page on Facebook that would spotlight animals who are on the euthanasia list in the city shelters. Every night I would see those little faces, most of whom were terrified and barely holding on to life, staring at me through the computer screen and I would cry. I felt completely helpless because there was nothing I could do to help them, nothing I could do to change their situation, and nothing I could do to alter the horrid shelter system they found themselves in. Eventually I had to stop reading the page. But one night in May, 2013 a friend tagged me in a photo of a cat named Sal. Sal was on “the list” and desperately needed to be pulled. In his photo he looked sick, heartbroken - and defeated.
It was that same look I had seen so many times in the eyes of so many animals. I immediately pledged money for his rescue and started to pray because I knew it would take a very special person to take this cat. I checked over and over to see if he was saved, and by a miracle, he was. A wonderful woman named Carolyn Albers had him pulled with the help of Mayor’s Alliance for NYC’s Animals and Hudson Valley Animal Rescue and Sanctuary. Sal was safe.
